Although not quite carved in stone, Intel's 17W Core i7 3667U may get a faster iteration in Q4 2012 or later in 2013.

Intel is taking this into consideration, but bear in mind that the first Core i7 3667U CPUs are yet to be shipped, while volume notebook availability is expected in early July. This is not so bad, since it’s some two weeks from now, but this shipping date for 17W dual-core Ivy Bridge can definitely be considered a delay from original plans.

Core i7 3667U has a max frequency of up to 3.2GHz, while its stock clock starts at 2.0GHz for both cores and four threads. The graphics starts at 350MHz and goes all the way up to 1150MHz. Its maximum dual-core clock is 3.0GHz.

Core i5 3427U may also be replaced with a faster version in Q4 2012 or later. This decision will depend on the demand and launching faster processors in Q4 may additionally boost pre-Xmas sales of Ultrabooks. The runner up, Core i5 3427U, works at 1.8GHz while its maximum turbo clock for both of its cores and four threads is 2.8GHz. It’s max dual-core clock is 2.6GHz while the graphics runs from 350MHz to 1150MHz.

Even the Celeron line, with yet to be announced 877, 847 and 807 parts, might get some faster processors in Q4 2012. Windows 8 is also expected to ship in October, very beginning of Q4 2012 so these two things may happen at the same time. Celeron 877 works at 1.4GHz and doesn’t have turbo, and the next in line may simply end up 100MHz faster.

Caso wrote to his clients that after checking in Asia this week, he thinks that Nvidia 's January quarter is tracking below plan. The outfit's GeForce (GPU), Quadro, and Tesla businesses combined are down about 10-12 per cent with the Quadro/Tesla somewhat weaker than GPU.

In November, the company indicated that it expected Quadro to be up sequentially, Tesla to be flat, desktop GPU to be up sequentially and notebook GPU flat to slightly down. However Caso thinks the outfit is significantly below that plan at this point in the quarter.

Given that Chinese New Year is occurring in late January,the channel will be loathe to take on additional inventory ahead of the slowdown, preferring to work through existing inventory. It looks like lead times for the company's GTX570/580/590 are up, indicating strong demand, which should help average selling prices in the quarter.

Fortunately for Nvidia, AMD is also having supply issues on its high-end GPU product, which theoretically could benefit Nvidia as a share gainer. However Caso believes the company has not been able to take advantage of AMD's struggles due to a lack of wafer supply.